Encapsulated lithium particles and methods of making and use thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016087263-A1
Application number	US-201414493886-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 23, 2014
Priority date	Nov 9, 2012
Publication date	Mar 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An encapsulated lithium particle including:
a core comprised of at least one of: lithium; a lithium metal alloy; or a combination thereof; and a shell comprised of a lithium salt, an oil, and optionally a binder, and the shell encapsulates the core, and the particle size is from 10 to 500 microns.

Also, disclosed is a method of making the particle and using the particle in electrical devices such as a capacitor or a battery.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An encapsulated lithium particle comprising:
a core comprised of at least one of: lithium; a lithium metal alloy; or a combination thereof; and a shell comprised of a lithium salt, and an oil, the shell encapsulates the core, and the particle has a diameter of from 1 to 500 microns.

2 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein:
the core is present in from 50 to 90 wt % based on the total weight of the particle; the shell is present in from 50 to 10 wt % based on the total weight of the particle, the shell has an average thickness of from 0.01 to 100 microns, and the shell comprises from 70 to 99.9 wt % of the lithium salt and from 0.1% to 30 wt % of the oil based on the total weight of the shell.

3 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein the lithium salt is selected from the group consisting of LiPF 6 , LiBF 4 , LiClO 4 , LiAsF 6 , LiF 3 SO 3 , lithium bis-oxalatoborate, lithium fluoro-oxalatoborate and combinations thereof, and the oil is selected from the group consisting of a mineral oil, a transformer oil or insulating oil, a silicone oil, a silicone-based oil, a fluorinated hydrocarbon, a vegetable based oil, white oil, liquid paraffin, pariffinum liquidum, liquid petroleum, or combinations thereof.

4 . The particle of claim 1 , further comprising the shell having a binder selected from the polymer group consisting of a styrene butadiene rubber (SBR), an acrylic polymer, a polyvinylidinefluoride (PVDF), a polyethyleneoxide (PEO), a polyethyleneimine (PEI), a polysiloxane, or a combination thereof, and the binder is present in an amount from to 0.1 to 2 wt % based on the total weight of the particle.

5 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein the lithium metal alloy is selected from the group of metals consisting of aluminum, silicon, germanium, tin, lead, bismuth, and combination thereof.

6 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein:
the particle has a diameter of from 1 to 100 microns; and the shell has an average thickness of from 1 to 50 microns.

7 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein the particle is substantially spherically shaped.

8 . The particle of claim 1 , wherein the particle is substantially chemically inert in an ambient environment comprising oxygen, water vapor, or a combination thereof.

9 . An encapsulated lithium particle consisting essentially of:
a core and a shell, the shell encapsulates the core, the core consists essentially of elemental lithium metal, the shell consists essentially of a lithium salt, an oil, and a binder; the shell directly contacts the core; and the particle has a size of from 1 to 100 microns.

10 . A method of making the encapsulated lithium particle of claim 1 , comprising:
contacting lithium-containing core particles and a shell source material comprising a complex lithium metal salt, an oil, and a solvent; and removing the solvent to produce the particles comprising a lithium-containing core and a shell encapsulating the core, the shell comprising the complex lithium metal salt and the oil.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the core consists essentially of elemental lithium metal.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein
the lithium salt is selected from the group consisting of LiPF 6 , LiBF 4 , LiClO 4 , LiAsF 6 , LiF 3 SO 3 , lithium bis-oxalatoborate, lithium fluoro-oxalatoborate or mixtures thereof, the solvent is selected from the group consisting of THF, methylene chloride, toluene, diethyl ether, monoglyme, diglyme, n-methyl pyrolidinone, dimethyl acetamide, dimethyl formamide, or mixture thereof, and the method is accomplished entirely below the melting point of lithium.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein a concentration of the lithium salt in the shell source material is of from 0.1 to 4 M, and the concentration of oil in the shell source material is from 0.1 to 30 wt % based on the total weight of the shell.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein contacting and removing are performed at from 15° C. to 150° C.

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein removing the solvent is accomplished by evaporation, filtration, centrifugation, or combination thereof.

16 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising washing the lithium-containing particles with a cleaning solvent prior to contacting the particles with the shell source material, the cleaning solvent being selected from the group consisting of hexane, heptane, toluene, chloroform, benzene, THF, methylene chloride, diethyl ether, or a mixture thereof.

17 . An electrode article, comprising:
a mixture of the encapsulated lithium particles of claim 1 and a binder deposited on at least a portion of the surface of a carbon electrode.

18 . A method of making a lithium electrode article, comprising:
spraying a mixture comprised of the encapsulated lithium particles of claim 1 comprising a lithium containing core, and a shell comprising a lithium salt, an oil, a binder, and an organic solvent, onto at least a portion of the surface of a carbon electrode.

19 . The method of claim 18 wherein the resulting sprayed mixture is dried for from 1 min to 12 hrs.

Assignees

• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Gadkaree Kishor Purushottam
• Kadam Rahul Suryakant
• Husted Andrew Fleitz

Classifications

• B22F1/16

  Metallic particles coated with a non-metal (coated with lubricating or binding agents or with organic material B22F1/10) · CPC title

• B22F1/102

  Metallic powder coated with organic material · CPC title

• C09K3/00

  Materials not provided for elsewhere · CPC title

• Y10T428/2989

  Microcapsule with solid core [includes liposome] · CPC title

• H01M4/58

  of inorganic compounds other than oxides or hydroxides, e.g. sulfides, selenides, tellurides, halogenides or LiCoFy; of polyanionic structures, e.g. phosphates, silicates or borates · CPC title